the futility of something is not always (in love and in politics) a sufficient argument against it. - Malcolm Gladwell

We need to respect the fact that it is possible to know without knowing why we know and accept that — sometimes — we’re better off that way. 1.

Puzzle Number One: Why can’t we tell when the stranger in front of us is lying to our face?

a social epidemic, Mavens are data banks. They provide the message. Connectors are social glue: they spread it. But there is also a select group of people — Salesmen — with the skills to persuade us when we are unconvinced of what we are hearing, and they are as critical to the tipping of word-of-mouth epidemics as the other two groups.